She Just Needs a Little Time
by steelefan
Summary: What if when Jenna ran out of the boiler room after hearing about what happened to Balto, Steele went to go find her?
1. Chapter 1

"Steele's lying! Balto's alive… and he's coming home…" Jenna stated; grabbing her bandanna up off the floor and running past Steele and out of the large boiler room.

Looking back behind himself, Steele took notice of the other dogs reaction to Jenna's sudden reaction to the news of Balto and the sled team's demise and quickly thought of something to say to remedy the awkward situation. "Well, ya know, she needs a little time."

The other dogs all nodded in agreement and dropped any hint of doubt in Steele's story, seeing Jenna as being overly emotional and, as Steele said, needing a little time.

After about a minute of silence, and Steele finally sitting down and relaxing next to one of the lit boilers in the room to warm up after his long trek back to the small town of Nome; one of Jenna's friends Sylvie spoke, addressing no one in particular.

"I feel bad for her. Jenna has such a good heart and doesn't deserve to be surrounded by all this loss." Sylvie said sadly.

"I can understand her being upset about her girl, but to care so much about Balto? I have no clue why she's so concerned about him." One of the dogs in the crowd said stoically.

"She doesn't care about that wolf dog!" Steele spat out as he nawed on a bone.

The other dog chuckled lightly."Seriously Steele? She _just_ sat her and denied his death; not the teams, _his_ death. Seems to me she feels something for the mutt."

Steele growled and stood up, looking the other dog in the eye. "Jenna does _not_ have any feelings for that mutt and is just upset because she doesn't want anything to happen to her girl."

"Whatever you say Steele." the other dog said with a smirk.

"I'll prove it to you! I'll go find her and talk to her." Steele said as he began to walk towards the door.

"Come back soon Steele! We'd still like you to tell us all about what happened!" Another dog in the crowd yelled.

Steele ignored the other dogs and walked out into the cold Alaskan winter. He began to walk towards the hospital where he guessed Jenna would be watching over Rosy but to his surprise, Jenna rounded the corner just ahead of him and was dragging a lantern in her mouth. Steele quickly put on his best smile, stood up straight, and curled his tail over his back to look as elegant as possible as he walked up beside her.

Jenna looked over to him and groaned, trying to walk a little faster as to not have to listen to Steele's babbling but she knew he could easily keep up with her and that it really would not do her any good.

"Jenna where are you going with that? May I help?" Steele asked with a big fang filled grin.

"Nowhere Steele." Jenna mumbled.

Steele quickly went from walking beside her to stepping in front of her and putting his paw out to stop her. Jenna, seeing as it was no use trying to ignore the arrogant husky, placed the lantern on the ground and looked Steele in the eye with a stern face.

"What do you want Steele?" Jenna asked plainly.

Steele grinned and wrapped his tail around his legs as he sat down in front of Jenna, still seeming to tower over her even though she was still standing. "You seem to be stressed and look like you could use some company so I simply thought perhaps I could help with that."

Jenna sighed in annoyance and sat down saying nothing; she had a feeling this might take a while.

"Oh c'mon Jen', I'm not here to try and convince you to go back in there with everyone, just come hang out with me for a little while. We could go somewhere private and just cuddle. Doesn't that sound nice?"

Jenna rolled her eyes. "No Steele it doesn't sound nice."

Steele smirked slightly, stood up, and walked over to Jenna's right side, sat next to her and wrapped his bushy tail around her back, getting as close to her as possible. "C'mon Jenna it's awfully cold out here, doesn't cuddling up to a nice warm dog like me sound nice?" He cooed.

Jenna quickly stood up and looked at Steele with disgust. She quickly went to grab her lantern when Steele moved back in front of her, blocking her from the lantern.

"Leave me alone Steele I am not in the mood for your cat calling." Jenna said sternly.

"What is it Jenna? What is it that you don't see in me that it seems _every_ other girl in this town seems to see? If this was Dixie I was trying to ask out on a date she would have a heart attack from the excitement!" Steele said angrily.

"I'm not Dixie Steele. Why don't you go ask her out, huh? You just said how much she'd love to go on a date with her so why don't you go harass her?!" Jenna angrily shot back.

"Because Jenna I don't want Dixie, I want _you_!" Steele said; almost desperately.

"Well I'm sorry to inform you Steele but unlike Dixie, I don't have the desire to have your dick in me!" Jenna yelled furiously.

Steele was shocked. Jenna was always a very calm and well spoken dog who never seemed to raise her voice or utter any fowl word and yet here she was angrily yelling at him. For a moment, Steele thought that perhaps he really was beating a dead horse but then quickly remembered that Jenna was going through a lot right now and she couldn't possibly mean what she was saying, he was Steele afterall!

Steele sighed and looked off to his left away from Jenna and spoke in a calm, almost friendly tone. "Jenna I'm sorry. You're going through a lot right now and I completely understand that. What's going on with your girl is completely unfair and the team's death is just yet another tragedy we have to deal with, but Jenna let me make you feel better. We don't have to go have sex if you don't want to, we can just go sit and talk if that's what you want. Come cry on my shoulder, let me tell you racing stories! Anything to make you happier."

Jenna stared directly at Steele who now was looking back at her. She was absolutely disgusted with this dog. Not only did he have the audacity to just ask to go "cuddle up", but he then had the nerve to try and play on her emotions to get her to submit to him. She had told him in the past about how she thought he was being arrogant but after what he had just tried to do with her, she was gonna go all the way.

Jenna slowly walked up to Steele. She got as close as she could to his nose without making contact. Steele stared with a false kindness into her brown eyes, thinking that she was about to kiss him.

"You are nothing but a vain, heartless dog who cares about nothing than furthering your own agenda. You only want what you want and can't handle being told no. I hate you." Jenna spat out through gritted teeth directly in Steele's face. Jenna then backed up off of Steele and turned around ready to walk away.

Steele said nothing for a moment allowing her to get about ten feet away before he called back out to her. "You know Jenna, I don't get you. You walk around with that mutt acting like he's the best thing on the planet and yet he has done _nothing_ for you or this town. I risked my life to get that medicine here and nearly didn't make it. I regularly run the mail and other freight doing an actual service for this place while he just steals food off of us. So I'm sorry that I maybe wanted a little something in return. And I'm sorry that I like you."

Jenna stopped and without turning around to face him spoke. "I don't know who hurt you Steele. I don't know what it is that makes you hate Balto with all your heart. Whatever it is though, I think you need to admit it Steele. Admit that the problem is with you and not me, and not Balto. He may not have a job to do for the town like you do but unlike you, he doesn't expect anything in return for his action except perhaps a little acceptance for who he is."

Steele said nothing and just walked over to Jenna who still refused to look at him and after coming up on her left, she simply looked to her right and continued talking.

"I think he scares you Steele. Something about him threatens you and you need to learn that he isn't out to get anyone." Jenna finished.

"What are you talking about?" Steele asked in a sarcastic tone.

Jenna quickly whipped her head around to face him finally; hatred burning in her pupils. "Balto isn't the one who attacked your father Steele. Balto is not the reason your father was mauled to death. Not every wolf out there is a bloodthirsty savage like the one who killed your father. Balto is the same age as you and I and was only a puppy like you when your father died. Stop projecting your hate for the wolf who killed him on Balto and just move on."

Jenna then went to run off when Steele jumped in front of her and angrily looked into her eyes. "I have moved on. That wolf dog is dead and there's nothing you can do about it." Steele spat out.

Jenna sighed and started to walk around Steele who seemed glued to the spot except for his eyes and head that followed Jenna as she walked. "I feel bad for you Steele. You have everything you could ever want, you haven't experienced any true hardship since that unfortunate event. You've always been surrounded by adoring fans, and one day Steele, they aren't going to be there, and you're going to have to learn the hard way how it feels for Balto everyday because of what you do to him."

With that, Jenna picked up the lantern from behind Steele who never once looked away from her until she was out of sight. For a moment, Steele continued to look in the direction she walked and even thought about what she had said. He quickly shrugged off her words however, relaxed his tense muscles, and smirked; She just needs a little time.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been a long night for Jenna. She had been harassed by Steele, been told her friend Balto was dead, and a life saving medicine to keep her owner Rosy alive was not going to make it. With all the emotions going around insider her head, she had decided to do the only thing that within the last few days had made her happy; that had given her hope: to make a light illusion of the famed Northern Lights, Aurora Borealis, using some broken bottles and a lantern. Jenna had learned the trick from Balto before the sled team left Nome to retrieve the antitoxin.

When Jenna ran into Steele, she had just gotten ahold of the lantern she would need to make her illusion come to life, and was now collecting various bottles and colored, translucent items that would create her light show. The task had taken her about forty five minutes to complete and she had just finished placing the final pieces into the perfect spots.

When she stepped away from the lantern light allowing it to hit the glass, the shadows began to dance in magnificent bright colors along a large snow bank behind the town; a spot where it could be seen by the sled team.

Jenna refused to believe Steele. Steele had the entire town's dogs in some sort of trance where he could manipulate them into believing anything he wanted them too. Steele had the town dogs convinced that Balto was a dangerous scavenger who would kill them in their sleep if they were not careful. Jenna knew better though, Jenna knew that Balto was the victim of Steele's constant torment and framing to make him appear to be some criminal while Steele remained the town hero seemingly protecting everyone from this menice.

From the moment Steele walked through the boiler room door, Jenna knew something was up. Steele had walked in the room looking as though he had just been beaten and left in the cold for days and not as though he had just delivered the medicine. Of course, Jenna did not have to wait long to get some sort of explanation for Steele's sudden arrival and appearance that from the very first sentence, simply reeked of absolute bullshit to Jenna.

"One by one they… fell… frozen… barely alive." was the first thing Steele had said when he walked in the room. Jenna was used to Steele's embellishing and was not impressed by his story of how he dragged the whole team alone who had died, and she especially did not believe that Balto "demanded" to take the medicine from Steele when he found him. As Steele continued his story, he eventually pulled out Jenna's orange bandana that she had given to Balto during his journey, and at that moment, feared the worst: what if Steele had killed him? In the moment, Jenna grieved and looked at her bandana that Steele dropped at her feet, she for a moment questioned everything and the thought that Balto could be gone became very plausible… but then Steele spoke.

"He made me promise to take care of you Jenna."

When Steele leaned down to her and said that, Jenna's sorrow quickly changed to pure anger and she quickly looked up at Steele calling him a liar, and that's when she ran off. Jenna knew that Balto would never say such a thing to Steele and it was nothing but an attempt to sleep with her, and it infuriated her.

Now that she was finally away from him after yet another encounter outside the boiler room, she was feeling happy and hopeful that Balto would return home to her. She was feeling much more at peace, until _he_ showed up.

"Very impressive Jen'."

Jenna quickly whipped her head around to face the dog who owned that low baritone voice: Steele. Steele it seems had once again followed her and had watched her create her light show and was again going to try his hand at seducing her, she was having none of it.

"Steele I already told you to leave me alone once tonight and I'd very much like it if you could adhere to my request for longer than an hour." Jenna spoke without turning towards him.

Steele, of course, ignored her and walked up next to her, keeping his eyes glued to the lights in front of him as Jenna did. "You don't know nearly as much as you think you do about my father's death."

Jenna turned to her left to look at Steele, he was sitting there not looking at her with a rather blank expression on his face. She was confused, Steele walked all the way back over to her from across town not to immediately try and seduce her again, but instead give a vague comment about what she did and did not know about the husky's father.

"What're you talking about Steele? _You_ were the one who told me about what happened to him." Jenna said confused.

"What you know is the same thing everyone else knows; my dad was attacked by a wolf and killed. What you don't know however is that I _knew_ the wolf that killed him." Steele said in a low, stoic voice.

Jenna did not know what to say. Steele was sitting here telling her information that before this was never a topic of discussion, hell talking about the sled dog's death was pretty off limits to in front of Steele.

Steele glanced his eyes to his right to meet Jenna's and sighed, continuing. "The wolf that killed him was, what I thought at least, a friend of my dad's who he sometimes took me to to visit on the outskirts of town, I even called him Uncle. What I learned later was that they did not have the best of relationships and that the reason he and I would go to visit was so that my father could bring him food, and in return was allowed to pass through his pack's territory during sled races and other events without worry of being attacked or bothered.". Steele then smirked and now turned his head to look at Jenna who was simply listening quietly, stunned by the fact that Steele was even telling her this.

"That wolf was always very nice to me and my family whenever we came to visit and he would even sit and play with me as a young pup. One day, that all changed however. We stopped by as usual, this time my father had no food with him to give. The wolf and my father spoke while I sat with my mother who decided to come along on this trip. At one point, I heard them yelling at each other, and the next thing I knew Jenna, that _monster_ pounced on my dad and ripped him to shreds; my mother and I ran off and that was the last we ever saw of either of them." Steele finished stoically.

Jenna sat in front of Steele feeling very confused. On one hand, Steele could have easily made up this whole story, but the look in his eyes when he told it was just too real for Jenna, she actually believed him. Carefully, Jenna spoke:

"I… had no idea Steele…"

Steele snickered and kept a small smile on his face when he responded. "No one does. I never had to tell anyone, everyone was always fine with the shortened version."

Jenna nodded and looked down, when suddenly, Steele's voice took on a more sinister tone.

"But of course, you having to be _difficult_ just had to demand to know more. Everyone else in this damn town was just fine with me not explaining all this but _you_ weren't!" Steele spat.

Jenna looked back up at the large husky; anger glittering in her eyes.

"Let me explain something to you Jenna, I _always_ get my way. This will be the last time you ever hear this story, or any other from my past. You will not utter a word of what you've heard and if you do, I will be a _very_ mad dog. Now, Jenna, I would very much like you to come back to the boiler room with me so we may have a nice evening still, once everyone has heard the story of what happened, we can go somewhere alone and enjoy each other's company, heh, and if you don't piss me off any further tonight, I'll let you feel my muscles." Steele hissed in a cold, icy tone.

Jenna stood up, shocked and a little afraid of what Steele could possibly do to her right now. Steele could easily pounce on her and rape her, he could even kill her; the possibilities were endless. Her thoughts however were quickly broken into when Steele stood up and stood with his nose just inches away from her own, a smug smile plastered on his face.

Jenna was scared of Steele in that moment, but it was that fear perhaps that drove her to do something she never thought she would have to do; she hit him. Jenna raised her paw and smacked Steele across his muzzle and before he could even fully comprehend what had happened, she had run off towards the town, and towards the hospital to be with Rosy.

Steele stood in place for a moment looking straight ahead trying to understand what just happened. He thought about chasing her down, but once again told himself that she was just so overrun with emotions that she was acting irrationally. With that thought in mind Steele began to walk back to the boiler room, he was done with her for the evening, or at least, until she chose to come back. For now, Steele would tell his story and perhaps later on, go check up on Jenna in the hospital with Rosy, it would be quite the shock for the humans to see him, but he was not very concerned about what could happen.


	3. Chapter 3

It could not last. Steele's plan to keep Balto from getting the antitoxin back to Nome just was not enough to keep the determined hybrid from making back home with the medicine and the rest of the team all alive and healthy. Steele had been so sure; so convinced that he could keep Balto from finding his way back home but alas, it still was not enough and so here Steele was, faced with his worst nightmare.

Steele had been in the middle of telling his story about how he made it back home all alone when an old St. Bernard, Doc, barged his way into the barn exclaiming that Balto had just rode into town with the medicine just in time. Upon hearing this, Steele turned his attention to Dixie, a small purple dog who had always thrown herself at Steele more than anyone else, hoping that she would remain just as loyal as ever and possibly help his situation in any way. However, Steele's treachery was too much even for her and angrily slapped the bone he was gnawing on out of his muzzle; proceeding to saunter off with the rest of the town's dogs who also had enough of Steele's lies and simply left him in the old boiler room begging for them to come back until the door shut violently without a single dog turning back to him.

At first when the door closed, Steele stood glued to his spot trying to think of what he should do. Nothing of this nature had ever happened to Steele, he had always been liked or been backed up by someone when something went wrong. Usually, Steele would have Nikki, Kaltag, or Star deal with the situations he was presented with, treating them as his own lackies rather than his friends. Now that Steele was alone, he was at a complete loss of how to handle the situation, he could not even place his own emotions; unable to tell if he was angry, sad, or scared, it was all just too real for the champion husky.

After about sixty seconds of blankly standing in place, Steele finally felt something he could understand; anger. Steele snorted and growled to himself; beginning to pace the room swishing his tail angrily. All Steele could think about now was how stupid he was for not killing Balto given how many chances he got, he was mad that his plan failed, most of all, Steele was angry at Balto. Balto was supposed to die in those woods, he was meant to get lost and die out in the bitter Alaskan winter but the damned half breed persevered and made it back right on time. As Steele was brooding over all these things Balto had done to him, he became aware of the whooping and cheering coming from outside.

Carefully, Steele walked over to the boiler room door and nosed it open; peeking his head out to see what was going on. With his sharp vision, Steele was able to make out the town's dogs all chattering loudly and seemingly trying to talk to someone in the middle of their group; presumably Balto. Steele was able to make out some of their chattering as congratulations and other words of praise and angrily snorted hot air out of his nose; that should be _him_ being praised.

Steele stood with his head poking out of the doorway looking towards the group of dogs who had come to a stop in front of the telegraph office which was less than two hundred feet from where Steele currently stood. Steele took notice to the fact that he could not see Jenna amongst the crowd of dogs and noticed the lack of humans anywhere near them which did not surprise Steele as he was certain they were all far more concerned with their children rather than the dogs.

" _I should go over there right now and rip that half wolf's throat out, teach him to mess with a dog like me"_ Steele thought to himself as he stared daggers at the happy wolf dog. As Steele stood angrily in the doorway however, he hatched a little plan; why kill the half breed right away? Why not scare him a little? Why not scare all those traitors? He could deal with Balto later when he was all alone but no way he could let these festivities continue without so much as a threat. With these thoughts in mind, Steele put an evil, tooth filled grin, stood up straight and tall, curled his tail high over his back, and began to walk towards the group.

Steele made his way towards the dog at a deliberately slowed pace to his normal walk in order to walk quieter and take the others by surprise at his sudden appearance. Lucky for Steele, most of the dogs were facing away from him and the few that could look up and see him were far too focused on Balto to take notice of Steele when he got close enough, making his sudden arrival that much more of a shock when he decided to speak up.

"Well, if it isn't my old _pal_ Balto." Steele said in a low tone as he made his way through the group of dogs to stand in front of of the hybrid.

The town dogs all quickly turned their attention to Steele who was now once again standing among them, only this time no one was happy to see him, though the most unhappy to see the husky must have been Balto who was staring up Steele's crystal blue eyes with pure terror. The last time Balto had seen Steele was during their fight on the cliff side and as far as he knew, Steele had died when he fell off that cliff and yet here he was just inches away from him yet again; looking very much alive and angry, but before anyone could say anything, Steele continued to speak.

"I'd say a congratulations from _me_ is in order... so, congratulations on saving the town Balto, you've really made yourself hero... I know I will _never_ forget it."Steele spat. He then moved uncomfortably close to Balto's face, nearly pressing their noses together, speaking with direct eye contact. "I look forward to seeing you soon, Balto." he spoke with venom in his voice.

Steele then backed off of Balto and walked off behind the telegraph office, returning to the anonymous darkness of the night leaving the town dogs speechless and Balto himself feeling ready to pass out.

After a few moments of silence, Kaltag, one of the dogs who had been part of Steele's team and witnessed along with Balto Steele's treachery during the serum run, walked up to Balto.

"C'mon Balto, don't let him scare you like that he's all talk. This whole town doesn't want anything to do with him anymore so he'll probably end up running off soon and that'll be that." Kaltag spoke sympathetically.

Balto nodded to Kaltag but said nothing as he walked over towards his snow goose friend, Boris who was standing amongst the other town dogs.

"Boris, could you let Jenna know I'm heading back to the boat? I need to get some sleep." Balto spoke quietly. Boris nodded in agreement and began to waddle towards the hospital where Jenna was currently sitting with Rosy as she recovered from her Diphtheria.

As Balto began to walk through the crowd back towards his boat, one of Jenna's friends, Dixie, the small purple dog who praised Steele the most during his reign over the town, walked over to him blocking his path.

"And where do you think you're going? You think just because Steele showed his face you need to go hide? You don't need to hide from us!" Dixie said happily.

Another dog then stepped up and continued what Dixie was starting. "Yeah Balto we know the truth now! We don't need that traitorous mutt! You're the real hero!"

Balto smiled and turned to look at everyone. "Listen guys thank you, thank you very much for showing me your support but right now, I need to just go lie down and get some rest."

"I'm wit him, all that pulling is tiring I need a good long nap." Nikki, a stout chow chow husky mix and another one of Steele's old friends said.

The rest of the town's dogs agreed and all began to disperse back to their homes, forgetting about Steele's intrusion and just enjoying the fact that their town's children would live to see another day.

Balto as well made his way back to his old beached boat he slept and lived in. Once he had gotten back to his boat, Balto sighed heavily and hung his head down. He had lied when he said he just needed some rest, in fact, Dixie had it spot on, he did feel he needed to hide now. Steele had always been after his hide and he was secretly very happy to see him fall off that cliff, finally content that his lifelong bully was finally gone and yet here he still was. Balto did find comfort in the fact that the town dogs were at least on his side now but that still did not diminish the fear Balto had for Steele. Steele had done horrible things to Balto in the past and it was enough for Balto to not only hate the husky, but fear him as well. On the outside, balto tried to hide the fact that he was scared of Steele and simply hated him as he did himself but that trick was starting to wear off. Now that Balto knew Steele was not only alive but here in town, he felt he would still live in fear because Steele was a sneaky dog, he knew how to make things look as though he did nothing wrong and this made Balto feel like Steele would be able to get to him no matter his status amongst the other dogs. To Balto, if Steele wanted him dead, he would find a way to do it, and that's what scared him the most.

Balto flopped over onto his blanket and laid on his back looking up at the night sky. While Balto hated Steele and also feared him, he also kind of felt bad for him too. Balto felt that no one did anything without some kind of motivation that they themselves believed to be justified and correct. Even though Balto knew he had never done anything directly to Steele as evident by the fact that from their first ever meeting a few years prior, Steele had hated him. Balto felt that something must have happened to Steele to make him act the way he did to him because while yes Steele was very full of himself, he saw the way he was with the other dogs and he was never truly _mean_ to them, just vain and egotistical. In fact, Balto had only ever seen Steele bully himself, never anyone else. Yes Steele was a fighter who would regularly get into brawls with other sled dogs when the humans had their heads turned but that just felt different to Balto because Steele would do just that, fight, no real trash talk, and no real attempt at hurting someone else's feelings; the only one who got that part of Steele was Balto himself.

Balto felt that deep in his heart, Steele truly was not a bad dog. Balto felt that based on everything he witnessed about Steele that it had to be something very personal that he associated only Balto with to make him hate him so much. To Balto, it was like someone hating the idea of dating because they had one bad relationship and then turning around and acting rudely to anyone who showed interest in them afterwards; he figured he must represent in some way or another something or someone Steele hated. At first Balto thought this was a crazy idea and that Steele really was just bad to the bone; until he started watching him with Jenna and Nome's child residence.

Now Balto knew that Steele was extremely overbearing when it came to Jenna and how he approached her, but after watching his interactions regularly, Balto realized something. Whenever Steele tried to get Jenna to like him and go out with him, he noticed that, as long as no one was watching, Steele would open himself up to her in ways he felt someone truly bad, who should be incapable of love, would never do. Steele always seemed to try his best to impress Jenna with his accomplishments and yes he would try and act macho and sexy, but he also had this passion to him as if his interest in her was not just skin deep and he really did want her to like him and date him. Balto had overheard on more than one occasion how Steele showed genuine interest in what Jenna had to say, and would ask her about the wellbeing of people and dogs (excluding Balto) she cared about. Balto would also see how Steele would remember what Jenna liked such as her favorite flowers, favorite places to go, and would recant stories Jenna would tell him and what about them he liked as well; Steele actually listened to her in a genuinely caring way.

To then add to Balto's theory, he also witnessed Steele being friendly with the town's children. Now it was safe to say that Steele was not the type of dog to roll over over play fetch with the kids, but he certainly did not act like an evil villain or anythings sulking away from the crowds to think of evil things he could do or stealing children's toys and using them as his own, ripping them up and such. No, instead Steele would bark happily at the kids, lick their hands and faces a little, and bend down to let some of the shorter kids pet his head and such. Balto had also seen many pictures of Steele with children in other towns who were ecstatic to see Alaska's champion sled dog for themselves. All this made Balto really ponder Steele's character because unless you were Balto, the most you could ever really say about Steele wa that he was a it arrogant and nippy with the other sled dogs during racing season. Balto knew there had to be some missing piece of the puzzle that was Steele that would help him figure out what it was about the hybrid he loathed so much and he hoped to find out soon. Unfortunately for Balto, it looked like his opportunity so to speak would come a little too soon.

The slow, heavy crunch of feet in the snow grabbed Balto's attention immediately as he knew Boris did not make such heavy footsteps. Carefully, Balto stood up and looked over the side of the boat he heard the footsteps on- he saw nothing, nothing but the tracks in the snow. Balto then carefully turned around and walked towards the bow of the ship where the footprints lead to only to realize too late paw steps on the deck behind him- this mystery dog had walked around the boat to the plank used to get up on the deck and Balto had realized too late that whoever it was was now on the boat with him, and his only escape would be to jump off the bow. The paw steps began to get closer until he could hear the other dog's breathing and lightly feel the fur of the dog on with his tail; Balto decided not to move, and to not say a word, as he had a pretty good idea based on the sound of the breathing who it was.

"I told you I'd see you soon Balto, don't tell me you aren't happy to see me." Steele spoke with a false sense of kindness.

Without turning to face the husky, Balto spoke, still facing the bow of the ship. "Why Steele? Why are you here?"

Steele let out a low chuckle and walked over to stand on Balto's left side, turning his face to Balto who slowly looked back at the taller dog. "Well I figured since you took the liberty of replacing me as lead dog of my own team, I'd give you a few lessons, after all, I _**was**_ a champion." Steele said adding emphasis on the past tense use of "was".

Balto looked away, unable to keep a straight face as he stared into Steele's cold blue eyes; he then spoke quietly. "I only did it because I had to Steele… the kids were dying."

Steele then placed a paw on Balto's shoulder nearly causing him to crumple down in fear, but luckily he was able to keep it to an uncomfortable shudder which Steele took notice of. "Oh Balto I understand. Things definitely did not go as planned out there. I'd say we both acted a little out of character out there, hmm? I mean, who knows what came over that _thick_ little head of yours to challenge my authority and try to take my place."

Balto then looked back up at Steele who had pulled in nice and close to Balto making sure he knew who was the bigger, more powerful dog. Before Balto could respond however, Steele continued.

"Well, whatever you were thinking, it was certainly bold and I can respect that much, but let me explain something to you _Bingo_ , it will be the last time you _ever_ do something as stupid as that little stunt you pulled over on me, do I make myself clear? You wanna take away _my_ friends and replace _me_?" Steele spat in Balto's face.

Balto backed up slightly causing Steele to unsheath his claws on the paw resting on Balto's shoulder insuring that he scratched the half breed as he moved. "I didn't do it for any of those reasons, I don't want to take your friends and replace you." he said confidently.

"No of course not, you just wanted to save the children! You wanted to do something good, something I was already in the process of doing. Guess what Balto, I wanted to do something good too, I wanted to bring that medicine here and help save those kids too but you know what I really wanted to do most of all?" Steele said angrily as he closed the distance between himself and Balto.

Balto almost did not want to ask. He had backed up into the railing on the other side of the ship and knew escape was not possible, he just had to listen to whatever Steele had to say and hope like hell he could get himself away from him. Slowly, Balto asked: "What Steele?"

" **I wanted to come home and rip out your** _ **fucking**_ **throat!** " Steele screamed as he raised a paw and slashed Balto across the face.

Balto yelled and fell backwards through the rotted old railing and onto the snow bellow. Luckily, the snow was deep and soft and Balto was able to quickly recover from the fall and runoff away from Steele who he was certain would be hot in his tail.

Steele did not give chase however, allowing Balto to run off towards the town. Steele smirked and began to slowly walk off the ship and towards the town at a slow relaxed pace. Steele really had no concern about being attacked because he felt that the town humans would never let their prized champion get hurt and he knew he could take just about any dog in town easily.

One Steele had reached the small town and was bathed in the warm glow of the house lights, he made his way through the dark allies to his musher's home where he would rest in the large comfortable dog bed he had in the living room.

Once Steele had reached the home, he made his way to the back door where there was a doggy door installed that allowed him to come and go as he pleased, no one in Nome locked their dog inside instead opting to allow them free roaming privileges of the town. Once inside, he was greeted by the darkness as his musher was still recuperating from his head wound he sustained during the serum run. Of course Steele was fine with this as he did not mind having the house to himself. So with a smirk on his face, Steele settled down on his dog bed, eager to get some rest and figure out how to handle his current shunned position better in the morning. For now at least, he could be content that he had scared the hell out of Balto, however unbeknown to Steele, a rather unpleasant reality was about to make its' presence known to the champion husky.


	4. Chapter 4

For about three hours, Steele rested peacefully on his dog bed; switching between resting his eyes and gnawing on the various chew toys he kept near his resting spot. It was hard for Steele to get any real sleep right now considering everything that had gone down in his life for the past week and a half. He had been drafted suddenly to lead his team into the bitter Alaskan winter to retrieve life saving medicine for the bed stricken children of Nome, gotten lost in a blizzard on the way back from Nenana, been lost, found, and then bested by Balto whom then took over as lead dog and lead the team back home, and now, Steele was the new outcast of Nome.

Steele had spent his entire adult life being praised and complemented; being given special VIP treatments wherever he went from humans and dogs alike. Fame and fortune had been the norm for Steele ever since his first win against Alaska's toughest teams back in 1921 when he was only a year old; beating out long time sled veterans and champions alike in the most competitive sled durbies being held at the time. Since then, Steele began building up a reputation for being the fastest dog in the Alaskan territory, and in 1923, Steele won the famed Golden Collar; dethroning a five year winner, Steele was unstoppable. Since 1923, Steele maintained his 'fastest dog in Alaska' reputation; remaining the wearer of the Golden Collar in 1923, 24, and 25- current day. Now though, it seemed Steele would lose that title along with the rest of his good reputation all because of that halfbreed, Balto.

Balto had always been the thorn in Steele's side ever since they met in 1922. Steele had learned of the wolf dog after a race one day when he spotted the small hybrid running frantically through an alleyway with some of the butcher's meat in his mouth. Upon further investigation, Steele learned who and what Balto was, along with his possible interest in Jenna. Through some of Jenna's friends, Steele learned about how they had seen Jenna on many occasions talking with the hybrid in a friendly way that Steele did not like since he also had his eye on Jenna since her family moved to the small town a few months prior. Now with all this information on this hybrid about who and what he was, coupled with his possible interest with his own crush, Steele very quickly began spreading the story of what had happened to his own father and how careful the rest of the dogs needed to be around Balto; saying he could and would attack them at any point if given the opportunity.

From that point on, Steele's popularity amongst the town dogs and humans skyrocketed due to his ability to chase the halfbreed out of town so easily and stop him from stealing things from local shops and such, even framing him for stealing a young girl's doll once which Steele triumphantly brought back to the saddened girl. Of course Steele knew that Balto was at most only guilty for stealing food here and there to stay alive, but to keep up his allegations about Balto being a pest and a danger, he needed to make it seem as though Balto was doing a lot more damage than what was actually happening. Steele's stunts were actually quite impressive; for such a large and pompous dog, he had this ability to move silently and quickly without being seen by anyone, adding to his ego.

Steele snickered and smiled to himself a little, thinking about how able he was to do just about anything he wanted; though that smile did not last. Almost as quickly as it appeared, his smile disappeared as he was reminded about the fact that after three years of being on top of the world, it was all over.

Steele put his head down on his paws and sighed; it wasn't fair. Steele had spent his whole life climbing his way to the top, doing what he needed to do in order to get ahead and now it had all blown up in his face. Steele, the most popular dog in Nome and Alaska's champion sled dog, had been utterly defeated and humiliated in front of everyone, and he hoped like hell that at the very least, the humans would be oblivious to everything that happened. Unfortunately for Steele, things were about to get a whole lot worse than just being shunned by his friends.

Slowly, the front door to Steele's house was opened and the light flicked on revealing his musher with a white bandage wrapped around his head standing in the doorway. Steele pricked his ears forward, and wagged his tail happily at the arrival of his master.

" _Finally, maybe now I can get something to eat, I'm starving!_ " Steele thought as his musher walked over to him.

The man in front of Steele slowly knelt down to Steele's level; giving him a good once over, seeming to confirm this was actually his prized husky who as far as he knew was as good as gone. Once he was certain this was actually Steele, the man got back to his feet and walked over into the kitchen; beginning to speak to the dog.

"So Steele, you cause my sled to crash, and then leave myself and the rest of our team out in cold to die, huh? According to every single person I spoke to once I woke up, you were not leading the team into town, instead that half wolf, Balto, was…. _**Why!?**_ " The man yelled as he turned around quickly towards Steele who had by now stood up and was standing about three feet from his master.

Steele lowered his ears and bowed his head; his musher knew. Steele then slowly walked towards the man and looked up to him putting on his best puppy dog eyes hoping to cute his way out of trouble.

Steele's musher smiled down to the large dog; reaching over to a glass of water he had left on the counter before leaving for the serum run; forgetting to dump it and wash the glass. The man then took the glass of water, and angrily splashed it in Steele's face who then backed up quickly and growled.

"No Steele. I've had enough of you. I put up with your bad attitude and fighting for all five goddamn miserable years of your life and I have _**had it**_! Before this stunt you pulled here your wins could actually make up for the nasty dog you are but now, now Steele, you've gone too far! Get out of my house and don't come back!" The man yelled.

Steele simply growled and walked back over to his dog bed, he knew his musher was going to mad for awhile and figured he would just stay out of his way until he cooled off a bit.

Of course however, Steele's musher was far from cooling off and retrieved a frying pan from the kitchen. The man then walked over to where Steele had made himself comfortable on his bed in the living room and smacked the husky hard in the back, causing the dog to jump up with a yelp. Before Steele even had enough time to fully comprehend what had just happened, the man smacked Steele again, and again, and again, until the dog crumpled to the ground in agony after taking more than a few good hits to the ribs and back. The man then grabbed Steele's prized golden collar and removed it violently; then proceeded to drag the beaten dog by his front legs out the front door; leaving him whimpering in the cold snow.


	5. Chapter 5

Steele lay whimpering on the cold snow covered stoop if his musher's house for the better part of thirty minutes; slowly attempting to stand but continuing to drop back down to his side and crying out in pain, his musher had without a doubt cracked a couple of Steele's ribs and bruised a few others. Steele remained on the porch whimpering loudly until finally his musher opened the front door again only to push Steele with a broom away from the house until finally the husky bit his tongue and limped away from the house he once called home; his back throbbing and begging for him to stop.

Before long, Steele fell back down onto the snow covered ground near Nome's general hospital where all the children were currently recovering from their sickness, close to the door through which he found Balto and Jenna the night before setting off for the serum run. Steele, being the eavesdropper that he was, stood back up ignoring the cringe worthy pain in his back to jimmy the door open knowing that on the other side was the boiler room for the hospital where it would be warm enough for him to stay for a while, and secluded enough that no one should be coming in here for at least the rest of the night.

After a few tries, Steele managed to knock the door enough to cause the still broken barrier to open up on its' hinges, the people of Nome being under so much pressure from the serum run that priority to fix the broken latch on the door was simply not a priority seeing as the extent of the repair was a badly fitting smaller door to replace the one Steele had broken with the latch to close it not being locked or even strong enough to keep the door properly closed.

Once Steele was inside, he sat down on his belly near the warm boiler ready to start brooding over himself more when he heard an all too familiar voice coming from the return vent on the wall connected to the hospital, the same place Balto and Jenna had used to enter the hospital's crawl space to listen in on the doctor in his office. The voice Steele heard was soft and feminine, he immediately recognized the voice as Rosy, Jenna's owner.

"Momma I told you Balto could be a good lead dog! He saved me!" Rosy said with excitement.

Rosy's mother smiled and kissed her daughter on the forehead. "He really did didn't he? You know Rosy, Steele was actually the one who lead the team out of town, makes you wonder how Balto ended up leading them back home."

"Well then where is he? I wanna thank him too!" Rosy exclaimed.

Rosy's mother shifted her gaze from the young child for a moment and bit her lip. Rosy had always loved watching Steele and the other sled dogs race; knowing that Rosy was very much interested in sled dog racing and she did not know what to tell her daughter since of course, Steele was not seen with the team when he returned and word about his abandonment of the team was spreading rather quickly.

"Rosy, darling, Steele is probably very tired after all that running, I'm sure he's resting right now." Her mother told her.

Rosy sighed. "I hope I get to see him soon too, I wanna see all the dogs on the team and thank them!"

Rosy's mother giggled slightly and dimmed the light in the room. "You will soon honey, now try and get some more sleep; you have to let the medicine make you all better, and the only way to do that is with rest."

Rosy nodded her head and laid her head on the pillow; yawning and drifting off to sleep with her mother walking out of the room and to another part of the hospital where Steele could no longer hear.

" _Oh you will see me soon Rosy, you'll all see me soon enough."_ Steele thought as he slowly backed away from the grating and slowly tried to stand up again.

As Steele stood, he found the pain in his back to be constant and he knew he really shouldn't be walking around and should probably be at the vet's but he did not care. Steele was too upset to care about the pain in his back; he was angry that his entire life could just be taken away from him in the blink of an eye.

Now that he had gotten to his feet and was insistent on ignoring the pain, Steele decided he needed to go grab some food from the butcher shop he regularly stole meat from since by the time the sun was up, he would need to keep a very low profile since it was almost certain that anyone seeing him would result in an attack. Slowly, Steele made his way out of the small boiler room and made his way down the alley between the hospital and general store next to it. Steele had almost made his way out of the alley when suddenly a red and white husky rounded the corner from the front of the hospital and walked straight into Steele.

Jenna gasped as she struck the powerful dog's chest and almost fell trying to back up. At first, it was not totally clear to her that she had bumped into Steele but after she looked up into the husky's face and recognized his piercing blue eyes, she froze feeling very threatened and small.

Steele had been quite shocked as well after the collision and he too took a moment to recognize that he had just knocked over his crush. Once Steele realized who he had bumped, he quickly hatched a plan.

Steele slowly backed up from the red husky and then fake tripped over his feet; falling onto his right side and wincing in pain as he landed on his already damaged ribs. Once the shot of pain down his back subsided after a moment, Steele looked up towards Jenna who had still not moved.

"Jenna… please help.." Steele squeaked through a low; pain filled voice.

Jenna stared down at Steele still standing in the same spot; she was confused as to how she could have possibly hurt Steele and was still very surprised to see him in the first place.

Steele winced again after trying to stand back up and looked back up at Jenna. "Please Jen.."

Jenna remained still and thought for a moment. She knew that Steele was a crafty liar and though he had never tried it before, it did not seem too out of character for him to fake being hurt in order to get a chance at her.

However this time Jenna had second thoughts. Usually she could see straight through Steele's lies and wooing tactics but something just seemed different. While yes Steele appeared to be a little dramatic as usual, he did appear to be in actual pain even though she had no real way of telling, it was really just a gut feeling that something was different.

"Steele… What happened?" Jenna asked quietly.

Steele winced and rolled onto his belly looking up at the red husky before him. "My musher *ack*... he hit me.."

Jenna leaned in cautiously to get a better look at the champion husky. Upon closer inspection, Steele appeared to have some matted fur on his sides and back indicating some blood and dried on it; there was no way he could fake that with water. Jenna also noticed that his breaths were labored and appeared to hurt him in a very realistic way. After a moment of judging the situation in silence, Jenna made her decision. She decided that helping him was the right thing to do; feeling that if this was real, she would feel eternally guilty for not helping him.

"Alright Steele I'll help you." Jenna said as she walked over beside him.

Steele looked up at her and smiled. "Thank you Jenna… can I lean on you for support?"

Jenna nodded her head; proceeding to help the injured dog to his feet. Slowly, Steele was able to stand and lean himself against the smaller husky's right side; holding as much of his own weight as he could as to not push her over.

Though it made Jenna feel weird to have Steele leaning against her, she felt it was the right thing to do. Jenna was raised to help others and she knew even though she was not very fond of Steele, she would feel horrible knowing that she let him die in the cold when she could have stepped in to do something.

As the pair walked, Steele let out the occasional grunt of pain. The fall, though intentional, caused Steele worse pain in his right side and it really did help having Jenna help him walk. It took the pair a good thirty minutes to reach Jenna's house where she took Steele to the sun porch around back where she usually slept and led him to the bed; allowing him to fall into it with a grunt.

Jenna sat down next to the large dog and took a moment to catch her breath. Though she could easily pull Rosy on her sled and Steele was not even putting his full weight on her, he was still pretty heavy, combined with a half an hour walk it was pretty tiring.

After Jenna took a minute to catch her breath and drink a little water, she turned her attention the black and white husky currently lying in her plush red bed. Steele was looking back at her with his ears up and tilted towards her, his tail still.

"Do you need some water? A little food?" Jenna asked.

Steele smiled and nodded his head. "Please."

Jenna nodded in reply and nudged the water bowl and food one at a time over to the resting dog. Steele took a few laps of the water and a couple unenthusiastic bites of the kibble she had.

" _I could certainly get used to this. It feels great having her take care of me."_ Steele thought as he returned his attention back to Jenna who was sitting a few feet away from him with her head on her paws.

"Uh Jenna? You don't have to sleep on the floor ya know.. There's plenty of room here on the bed." Steele said softly as he scooted over slightly to make more room.

Jenna looked up at Steele who looked at her with a much less intense stare than he usually did when he wanted her to join him for anything.

"Um… It's alright Steele… I don't mind the floor." Jenna said with a forced chuckle.

Steele sighed and looked away from her. "I'm not trying to get you cuddle with me or anything like that, I just don't feel like you should be sleeping on the floor."

Jenna thought for a moment. Steele was never this nice and certainly not this passive about the idea of something sexual. Steele flat out saying he was not trying to get her to do anything with him was very out of character as he usually tried to sneak it in somehow that he wanted to do something with her. Jenna also felt that if this was really all just a plot to get her to have sex with her that he would have done it by now. Steele was not the type of dog to lay off trying to be romantic with her, and not only was he not staring at her in a lustful manner but he was also much quieter than usual. With all this new behavior and the fact that she was extremely tired from all the things going on with Rosy and Balto, she replied with a simple "okay" and climbed onto the bed with Steele.

The size of the bed was quite small and really was not made for more than one dog on it, this making it impossible for them not to touch but to Jenna's surprise, Steele did not try to pull her closer to himself or touch her in any way that might make her uncomfortable. Instead, Steele lay on his right side allowing Jenna to rest her head on the soft fabric with the back of her head touching his chest. Once Jenna appeared to get comfortable enough, Steele placed his paw gently on Jenna's shoulder since there was no other place for him to put it and rest his head in a manner which allowed his muzzle to gently touch the top of Jenna's head.

Though Jenna's whole body was resting against Steele's belly she did not feel very awkward or nervous about what the large husky would do, in fact, Jenna felt rather comfortable. Steele's fur was much softer than Balto's and much thicker; giving him a very warm, protective blanket like feel. If Jenna was being honest with herself, she could see why sleeping with him was considered the ultimate thing a female dog could do with him, besides his personality, he had a great body; that she could not deny.

As Jenna thought about what it felt like to be sleeping next to Steele, Steele himself began to slowly doze off. He was thinking about how awesome it was to finally have the girl of his dreams sleeping right beside him, his plan was working.

" _Now all I have to do is play cute a little bit and she'll be mine in no time."_ Steele thought to himself with a smirk on his face as drifted off into dreamland.


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning, Jenna awoke before the large Siberian Husky who was lightly drooling and snoring indicating that he was not even close to waking up. For Jenna, this was both a good and bad thing, it was good because she could have a little time for herself to think about how she should go about handling this rather odd situation without having Steele watch and talk to her. His deep slumber was negative however in the way that at any moment someone, either Balto or her owners, could walk in and see the sleeping dog which could cause some pretty obvious problems.

Jenna slowly paced the room, taking gentle steps as to not disturb the sleeping husky even though he seemed to be in a deep sleep; he did not even stir when she got up off the cramped doggie bed. For about five minutes, Jenna tried putting her thoughts together but she just could not get past the whole "Steele is in your bed sound asleep, possibly injured… now what?" notion and unfortunately, she would not get the chance to get past the thought as Rosy's mother had just pushed the door open with a fresh bowl of food for her and gasped upon seeing Steele in the bed and Jenna sitting off to the side of the room; staring up at her.

"Jenna..? What's going on here?" Rosy's mother asked rhetorically in a soft, confused voice.

Jenna simply looked at Rosy's mother, and then at Steele who was slowly waking up and yawning.

Steele woke with a large yawn and stretch, followed by a cringe when pain shot through his body from his damaged rib cage. Once the pain subsided after a moment, he looked around and quickly shared Jenna's surprised expression as Rosy's mother placed the food on the ground and slowly made her way over to the groggy sled dog.

Rosy's mother leaned down and gently placed her hand on Steele's head. She was not mad at either dog for what she found because she was less than oblivious to the fact that Steele seemed to like her dog and she could not exactly be upset by two dogs being on her back porch since it was always accessible from the outside for Jenna. What caused Rosy's mother to be so shocked was that Steele was nowhere to be found when the team pulled into town and yet here he was laying on her back porch.

Upon closer inspection, Rosy's mother saw the dried blood on Steele's back and quickly pieced together that he was hurt and came here probably because his own house was locked and he obviously liked Jenna; Rosy's mother actually felt a bit touched thinking that Steele trusted her family enough to come here for shelter and help.

"Oh you poor thing, you got separated from your team by accident and had trek all the way back home by yourself!" Rosy's mother exclaimed before gently hugging the husky around his neck; a smile on his face.

" _Oh yes! Poor Steele got lost and braved the storm to get home! That's something I can work with."_ Steele thought to himself.

Jenna sighed in relief. She knew that her owners would react in two ways: either scold her for letting another dog in the house and kick Steele out, or take full pitty on the wounded dog and help any way they could. Now that she was able to get past the initial shock of helping an injured Steele, she was able to rationally think about what could possibly happen from this point forward. Jenna figured that her owners would consult with Steele's musher about finding him, then hand Steele back over and he would not be her problem anymore.

Jenna had not yet been fully filled in on what Steele had truly done but she figured it had to have been something bad for his own musher to beat him up like he did which is why she even helped him in the first place; had Jenna known about Steele's actions during the run she would have left him to die in that alley way. For now, with Jenna's current knowledge about Steele and the serum run, she just wanted him out of her fur and to catch up with Balto and the other town dogs.

"John! Come out here please!" Rosy's mother called into the house.

Quickly, Rosy's father John emerged from the door his wife had just used to bring the food out to their dog to find her sitting down next to the dog bed with the town's champion sled dog laying in it.

"What's going on here?" John inquired.

Rosy's mother looked up at her husband from petting Steele and explained. "I came out to give Jenna her food as I usually do and I found poor Steele here laying in her bed. I think he's hurt though honey, he's got dried blood on his fur and is breathing a little strangely, he probably got detached from the team by accident and found his way home but got hurt."

"But why would he be here? If he could figure out how to find his way home you'd think he'd go to his own house." John stated.

"The musher was hurt when the team came in last night, He probably wasn't discharged from the hospital yet and the house was still probably locked up and Steele couldn't get in, so he came here. I think he trusts us because he likes Jenna." Rosy's mother stated as she lightly pet Steele's head.

John knelt down beside his wife to take a closer look at the dog. Steele was definitely banged up and could use some help, so John gently picked up Steele with the dog bed wrapped around him and began to walk out of the porch and into the main house with his wife and Jenna behind him.

"Let's walk him over to the vet's office, it's only just down the road. They'll obviously know who's dog this is and let his musher know what happened, I'd rather not disturb him if he's not feeling well." John stated

Rosy's mother agreed and quickly put on her shoes and coat, following her husband out the door with Jenna still close behind.

The walk to the vet's office was rather fast since it was run out of the vet's house only four houses down from Rosy's. Once the group made it onto the front porch, Rosy's mother knocked and waited for the vet to come to the door. The vet opened his front door to find Rosy's parents holding Steele who was still wrapped up in their dog bed and ushered them all inside.

"We're so sorry to bother you, we know you don't officially open for another hour or so but we found Steele here on our back porch and he doesn't seem to be in the best shape." Rosy's mother explained while the vet had John place Steele on a large coffee table in the center of the room so he could take a look at him.

"It's quite alright. My job is to help these animals and emergencies don't just happen between nine and five!" The vet chuckled.

The vet sped about a minute looking Steele over before bringing him into the back where he had more equipment to help heal any injured animals. Upon his quick inspection, he was able to determine that Steele had two cracked ribs and one completely broken rib that appeared to be leaning against his lung based on the location of the bone and the dog's strange breathing pattern.

"Good thing you guy's came, he's definitely in no shape to just walk this off." The vet explained as he gently carried the dog into another room.

The vet came back out a moment later without Steele. "I'll give his musher a call to let him know what happened, I'm sure he's worried sick about his dog."

"Rosy's still in the hospital and we were gonna head over there and spend some time with her so we can let him know about Steele when we go, He's probably still a little sore from hitting his head." John stated.

The vet chuckled slightly. "Oh you didn't know then? He was released late last night and was allowed to go home, turned out he didn't have any head trauma or anything like that so he wouldn't be there."

"Oh that's good! Well thank you so much for opening your doors a little early to help us. Give us a call at the hospital if you need us for anything. Take care!" Rosy's mother stated as she, her husband, and Jenna made their way out the door.

"Not a problem! Have a good day and pass on my regards to your daughter! I hope she gets well soon!" the vet called back as the couple and their dog made their way out the door.

In the next room over, Steele overheard the entire conversation and was getting a little worried. _"What if that asshole comes back for me? I'm in no shape to fight him off. Crap, I guess I'll just have to see where this goes for now."_ Steele thought to himself.

Jenna walked along the sidewalk with her owners, relief flowing through her body. _"Steele isn't my problem anymore, and with his injuries he shouldn't be a problem for a while."_ she thought happily.

Soon the couple and their dog arrived at the hospital. They were brought to Rosy's room by a nurse and were delighted to find Rosy sitting up in bed, her face lit up with happiness as she read a story book to Balto who was sitting on the bed next her keeping her company.

"That dog is so sweet, he came to the door about an hour ago and as soon as we let him in he went right to Rosy's room and made himself comfortable. He makes her so happy you have no idea, and she loves him just as much." The kind nurse said to Rosy's parents as they watched their daughter happily read and pet Balto.

The couple and Jenna walked fully into the room, receiving a kind bark from Balto and a sweet hello from their daughter. Rosy's parents sat on the bed to talk with their child and Balto jumped down onto the floor to greet Jenna.

"Hey Jen' it's nice to see you. I hope you don't mind but I wanted to keep Rosy company while she was here." Balto said in a kind voice; a smile plastered on his muzzle as he nuzzled against Jenna.

"Not at all, thank you for being here for me and Rosy, Balto." Jenna said as she nuzzled him back. "Balto, I have quite the story to tell you." and Balto sat down with Jenna ready for her story, unaware of just how far out it was about to get.

 **Hey everyone! Sorry about the long wait on this chapter, I don't have a ton of free time to write and I was at a loss for what to do for this chapter but it's finally here! I hope you all enjoy and please comment! I love hearing feedback from each and every one of you!**


	7. Chapter 7

"You did what?! Jenna you can't be serious." Balto exclaimed.

Balto had just been told the story of how his new mate, Jenna had helped Steele, Balto's long standing bully, by letting him not only stay at her house, but sleep with her. Balto was of course, quite shocked to learn of Steele being hurt and puzzled as to why Jenna would even help the egotistical husky, though he was not mad at her; Balto of course attempted to do the same thing when he went to assist in the delivery of the antitoxin.

Jenna looked down, ashamed of what she had done. Though she knew Balto was not angry with her, she suspected it hurt him still because though he liked to always do the right thing, helping the one dog who had made it his life goal to destroy him could not feel too good.

"Balto, it's true. I felt bad for him because he was in genuine pain and I just wouldn't be able to forgive myself if he had died when I could've helped, he's no murderer either, just a bully." Jenna stated sadly; her eyes still pointed towards the ground.

Balto gently placed a paw under Jenna's chin and raised it to meet her gaze; a look a love and happiness met her somber face. "I'm not mad at you Jenna, and I'm certainly not in any way hurt by what you did. You're a better dog than him, I'd expect nothing less of you than what you did."

Jenna leaned in to nuzzle Balto's left cheek. "Thank you for understanding Balto."

Balto returned the loving gesture and the two then leaned back to once again face one another; Jenna's face now returning from sadness to curiosity.

"Balto, what really happened out there? Why did Steele have my bandana?" Jenna asked curiously.

Balto then proceeded to explain his journey. He explained how when he had found the team, Steele was vicious and tried keeping him away from taking the medicine. Balto told her how Steele angrily said how he was the lead dog and would not take any orders from the likes of Balto, how Steele tried to fight him but managed to fall of a ledge, and how Steele tampered with the markings he had made earlier to find his way back home.

Throughout his story, Jenna had a look of pure horror on her face. She had always known Steele to be a big bully and how he was extremely full of himself, but she never thought that Steele would get so vicious to a point where he would let the town's children all die of a horrible disease just so he could remain on top. Jenna was hurt; her little Rosy would have died with Steele leading the team.

When Balto finished his tale, Jenna had tears streaming down her face. Balto had nearly died multiple times for her and everyone else while Steele biggest priorities in life seemed to be nothing more than keeping his reputation, having Jenna as a mate, and gawking over himself in mirrors. Jenna quickly leaned in to Balto for another loving embrace only this time was followed by more tears and sobs.

Balto gently nuzzled the crying husky and cooed lovingly. "It's alright Jenna. All this horrible stuff is over now, we did it."

"I… Helped that monster… That _fucking_ monster!... I should've left him die out there!" Jenna spoke through her sobs.

Balto continued to lovingly nuzzle Jenna until she stopped sniffling and had controlled her breathing enough to backup slightly and return to a normal sitting position to look at the half breed.

"I'm sorry Balto. I should've never helped that disgusting mutt up off the ground." Jenna said; her voice slightly nazley from her crying.

"Jenna, you had no idea what happened out there. We didn't get much time to talk last night and the news just hadn't reached you yet." Balto explained with a caring smile.

"He just better stay the fuck away from all of us after he recovers." Jenna said with a scowl.

"I doubt he'll be an issue any more, the other dogs in town all know what happened and the news is going around fast to those who don't already know it and everyone seems to have the same opinion as you do on Steele." Balto said happily.

Balto then began to walk towards the door, ushering Jenna to follow. "Why don't we let Rosy and her parents spend some time together, Why don't you introduce me to some of your friends, I'm kinda new at this whole acceptance thing."

Jenna smiled and began to follow the hybrid. "I like that idea." and the two dogs made their way out of the hospital and down the street.

Back in Rosy's hospital room, her parents had been reading stories to her and told her about finding Steele on the back porch. Rosy expressed her excitement and how she wished to see him and bring him treats to make him feel better. Rosy's mother and father chuckled at this and both gave her a kiss on the forehead when the kind nurse from before came into the room.

"I hate to bother you but there's a phone call for you out here." The kind nurse explained as she gestured to follow her to the phone mounted on the wall in the hallway.

Rosy's parents looked at each other in confusion as they had no idea who could be calling for them. John got up off Rosy's bed, leaving his wife and daughter to talk while he went to see who requested them. The nurse led John to the phone, gave him a smile and walked away as he put the receiver up to his ear.

"Hello?" John asked.

"Hi, it's Doctor Samuel from the vets office. I have a small problem." The vet explained.

"What's the issue Doctor?" John asked curiously.

"Well I called Steele's musher but I got no answer. I needed to make a run over to the general store which is right by his house so I figured I'd drop by in person but when I got to the house the door was wide open and a lot of his valuables were gone. At first I thought something bad happened so I called the sheriff's department from his house to let them know but… they told me they found him in his car… dead. Apparently he had packed a bunch of stuff into his Model T and drove off but slipped on the ice and slammed right into a tree, they had only found the wreck around three hours before you guys came in with Steele so the story wasn't even in the paper yet." The vet sighed. "He was a good man, now the headlines are gonna read: famous Alaskan musher dies tragically the night after he returns to Nome with life saving medicine."

John was pretty shocked by this news. Steele's musher was a well respected member of the community and to lose him was quite the loss for the town.

"So what happens to Steele, Sam?" John inquired.

The vet sighed and explained his idea.

Later that day, around six o'clock at night, Balto and Jenna arrived back at Rosy's house. Both dogs had spent the day meeting dogs, getting thanked by humans and animals, and just enjoying each other's company. By six, both dogs were tired and decided to call it quits.

"I'll come by tomorrow, it was a pleasure spending my first day back in Nome with you Jenna." Balto said as he nuzzled the red husky.

"I couldn't think of a better dog to flaunt around to my friends." Jenna stated back; returning Balto's affections.

The two dogs then pulled away, smiles across their muzzles. "Well, goodnight Jenna."

"Goodnight Balto, I love you." Jenna stated as she turned to walk towards the back of her house to the sun porch.

"I love you too." Balto said as he two turned to walk back to his trawler.

Jenna made her way across the front lawn when John stepped outside from the front door. "Jenna! Come here girl! I have a surprise for you!"

Jenna then diverted her corse to the front door and followed John into the house. John then led his husky to the living room where Jenna stopped dead in her tracks at the threshold of the room. There, laying in a dog bed, a white bandage wrapped around his torso, was Steele.

Steele lay in his dog bed gnawing on a bone when he spotted Jenna and John in the doorway, a smirk made its' way across his face.

"Jenna, Steele's gonna be staying with us now since his musher passed away. I figured he'd keep you company while you're here and he adds an extra layer of protection to the house too." John stated happily. John then walked out of the room leaving both dogs with a "have fun!" as he joined his wife in the dining room to eat.

Jenna remained standing in the door frame of the small living room, not daring to say a word as she was still shocked at what her owner had just told her.

Seeing Jenna's apprehension, Steele very carefully stood up from his dog bed to walk over to Jenna but as he took a step, Jenna took one step back, never taking her eyes off his. Steele chuckled lightly.

"Jenna, what's wrong?" Steele inquired sweetly.

"You're what's wrong Steele. What are you doing in my house?" Jenna asked intently.

"I do believe John just said why I'm here. Does that bother you?" Steele asked sadly.

"Yes it does bother me Steele. I know what you did." Jenna stated venomously.

Steele backed up slightly and returned to a lounging position on his dog bed. "I wasn't thinking straight Jenna… That was a huge mistake I made out there… the cold can just do such strange things to your head, you can't think clearly or make any rational decisions." he said with a sigh.

Jenna then walked up to Steele and looked down at him, she did not want to sit with him so she remained standing.

"You only care about yourself Steele. If it was up to you you'd live surrounded by mirrors so you could look at yourself." Jenna spat.

Steele looked down sadly. "I'm sorry Jenna… I hope you'll let me make it all up to you… I won't be going anywhere anytime soon, the vet said I have a bruised lung, two cracked ribs and a broken one."

Jenna kept her cold stare on the husky, she was not going to show him any sympathy or even speak.

Steele looked back up at Jenna, hate still festering in her eyes. "I just want to contribute to making this house a nice place for Rosy, you, and her parents… they're such kind people."

"Stay away from Rosy." Jenna shot out through gritted teeth.

Steele sighed and looked down again. "I don't wanna cause any tension in this house…"

"Then stay away from me, Rosy, and Balto. Rosy is coming home tomorrow and Balto and I plan on being here to greet her and play with her, do not interfere. You just keep your pampered ass out of our business or I'll break another rib." Jenna angrily said. She then stormed off before Steele got a chance to respond, she did not care what he had to say.

" _Fantastic, Balto's gonna flip his shit when he sees me here. Hopefully he'll cause a little scene and his ass will get thrown out so Jenna and I can have some alone time. Just a little bit longer Steele, she'll come around."_ Steele thought as he rested his head on his front paws and drifted off to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

The following morning around ten o'clock, Balto made his way through the small town of Nome towards Jenna's house located just a few blocks inward once you got off the beach where his trawler lied and onto Front Street. The morning air was frigid as it always is during this time but it was not so uncomfortable to be in as there was not even a small breeze; all in all, it was a lovely morning filled with sunshine.

Once Balto had reached Jenna's small two story home, he made his way around the back of the house to the sun porch Jenna usually spent the night in as it was private, quiet, and offered her easy access to the outside as she did not need to disturb Rosy or her parents to be let out. Balto ducked through the doggie door and pawed open the slightly ajar door that led into the house's kitchen where he found Jenna eating some left over sausages Rosy's parents had cooked during breakfast, though her face did not seem very pleased Balto had noted.

"Morning Jenna, you okay?" Balto inquired as he took a seat in front of Jenna.

Jenna raised her head, a look irritation in her eyes. "Take a peek into the living room, that should answer your question." Her voice annoyed though clearly not towards Balto and instead at whatever she was implying to.

Balto stood up and walked quietly through the dining room and peeked around the corner through the hall and into the living room where he spotted the issue. There, eating his own leftovers from breakfast, was Steele. Steele had not noticed Balto looking around the corner as he was preoccupied with his food.

Balto gasped and quickly backed up and moved swiftly into the kitchen where Jenna had been waiting; a look of shock on his face. "What's he doing here!?" He whispered annoyingly.

Jenna met his gaze without standing. "Rosy's parents thought it best he stay with us since his musher was killed in a car accident, I already told him you'd be here today when Rosy came home and to stay out of-" Jenna's words were cut off by the sudden appearance of the large black and white husky through the kitchen door that led into the front hallway of the house.

"Oh Balto! I didn't even hear you come in! Forgive me please, I'm not much of a morning dog and I must look like total crap what with all this bed fur and grogginess." Steele said with a fang filled smile and groggy morning voice that made it hard to distinguish if this was a genuine greeting or sarcastic remark.

Jenna rolled her eyes and walked over to sit next to Balto as she prefered Steele stay away from her.

"What do you want Steele?" Jenna asked in an annoyed tone.

Steele smirked and turned to face the hybrid and red husky before him. "Why nothing Jenna, I just wanted to say hello to our house guest." Steele's cold blue eyes met Balto's. "Afterall, he is a hero."

Balto shuddered slightly at Steele's venomous tone but kept his composure, he knew Steele would not try and attack him in the house. Attempting to get the pressure off himself, Balto then changed the subject away from his deeds and appearance that morning.

"Looks like that fall you took had a nasty impact." Balto said coldly; gesturing to Steele's bandaged torso.

Ever since returning and hearing nothing but praise and admiration from the town's folk and the denouncement of Steele's name by the local dogs, Balto felt a higher level of confidence and refused to show his former bully any submission.

Steele was slightly taken aback by Balto's words as he had never gotten vicious towards him like that. After his momental surprise at Balto's brave choice of words and delivery, Steele sat on his haunches and gestured with his left paw to the bandages.

"Yes, well this wasn't from the fall, how it happened I don't think matters much. It doesn't hurt so much as it is sore, however Jenna's family is taking wonderful care of me I can assure you. I don't think I wanna leave!" Steele said in his normal low baritone voice as the grogginess had worn off by this point.

Before any of them could speak again, the front door opened followed by the happy voice of Rosy calling out for the dogs.

"Jenna! Balto! Steele! Where are you?" Rosy asked as she ran down the hall.

Rosy then burst through the kitchen door only to have Steele be the first one she came in contact with. Rosy laughed and patted Steele on the head who barked happily and licked the girl's hand until she sat down on the floor allowing him to lovingly lick her face; his tail wagging happily.

Balto and Jenna walked gingerly over to Rosy where they to tried to greet the young girl only to have Steele block them as he was much bigger than both of them. Jenna of course, was enraged by this as Steele was never this enthusiastic about children as he normally left it at letting them pet him and that was about it; it was unheard of to have him give any child loving doggie kisses and such.

Balto too felt a sense of anger as he felt this was all in act to look sweet and kind around Rosy, her parents, and Jenna. He was about to growl at Steele but Jenna stopped him when she saw Balto move forward in what she knew was an aggressive move as she did not want to see Balto get kicked out or have Steele do something stupid and hurt Rosy.

"He's doing it to be cute, just sit and relax, the less attention we give him the better." Jenna whispered to Balto who reluctantly sat beside her.

Steele of of course, knew exactly what he was doing. He knew that it would infuriate Balto to see him act like he was a big, innocent, dopey dog who just wanted to play. Steele also knew that this would at first make Jenna upset as well but it was all part of his plan, he knew what he was doing.

" _The first few times I do this she'll be pissed, but the more I do it the more genuine she'll think it is."_ Steele thought to himself as he proceeded to sit on the small girl's lap and lick her more.

Rosy giggled and hugged Steele. "Thank you for saving me too Steele, you and Balto are my heroes."

Steele barked happily in reply and Rosy then gently nudged his head down, signaling she had had enough for now and Steele happily obliged by simply laying across her lap; ceasing his licking. Rosy then called for Balto and Jenna to come over to her and they happily sat beside her as she pet them both; the hybrid and husky intently ignoring Steele. Rosy's parents then called her over to the dining room table to have a late breakfast of her favorite cereal, the three dogs left to themselves in the kitchen.

"She's such a sweet girl Jenna." Steele said with a grin.

Jenna annoyingly walked past him, purposely hitting him in the shoulder as she passed leaving Balto still sitting and facing Steele.

"You're pathetic Steele." Balto spat, his golden eyes locked onto Steele's.

Steele smirked, then got up himself and hit Balto hard in his right shoulder with his own causing the hybrid to lose balance on his haunches and fall over.

"I'm not pathetic half-breed." Steele then turned around to face the hybrid still on the floor. "I'm your goddamn worst fucking fear." he spat out through clenched teeth as he rounded the corner into the dining room to sit at Rosy's side.

Balto huffed and stood up, following in his mate's footsteps and leaving through the kitchen door into the hallway where he found Jenna crying quietly.

"Hey, hey, don't be upset. He's an asshole yes but he isn't gonna hurt you, not in here. I would never let that happen and neither would your family. He's just doing this to get under your skin like you said." Balto said reassuringly as he wrapped his right front paw around Jenna's back.

Jenna sniffled and looked up into Balto's eyes. "You're right, I know you're right. I just don't want him here…"

"Neither do I Jen', Neither do I." Balto said as he nuzzled her close. Balto then glanced at a wall clock, it was hardly ten thirty, the day was long from being over.


	9. Chapter 9

Ten forty-five. Time seemed to be moving so slowly for Balto as it felt like he and Jenna had been sitting in the hallway for hours at this point. Jenna had stopped crying shortly after Balto started comforting her and now were just lying down cuddled up to one another on the cool hardwood floor. Balto sighed as he glanced around him; looking at the closet door behind the staircase in front of him, then to the swinging kitchen door to his side, and finally down the hallway towards the front of the house where on one side was the wide entrance to the living room and on the other was the entry into the dining room where Rosy and her family sat and ate while Steele sat obediently at her side receiving pets from the small girl as she munched on her breakfast.

Balto kept looking around at these same surroundings a few times now but he tended to let his eyes linger on the view down the front hall; waiting and watching for the large siberian husky to once again barge in on the peacefully resting couple. Balto was getting really tired of this. He hated sitting here and feeling so unsafe in a house which he knew should be nothing but joyous for him but that damn egotistical husky just had to once again get in the way of things. Balto could not remember a time in his life since arriving in Nome when he was young that Steele was not out to find him and attack him.

As Balto watched the hall and listened to Jenna quietly breath beside him he began to recall the time he was sitting on his boat just the other day thinking about how Steele seemed to be a pretty decent dog around everyone except for him, and how Steele seemingly feeling a disturbance in the air showed up right on que and threatened the hybrid yet again. Balto let out a small grunt in frustration as his caring side wanted to know more about Steele and figure out what was actually going on with him, but the rest of him just wanted to get the obnoxious dog out of this house and away from the people he cared about.

"Balto?" Jenna asked quietly, picking her head up and looking to the hybrid.

Balto looked away from the hall and down at the red husky beside him still curled up next to him. "Hmm?" he muttered.

"What are you thinking?" the red husky inquired.

Balto sighed and stood up; leaving Jenna with that cold empty feeling you get after pulling away from something warm and stable. He walked towards the front hall of the house leaving Jenna with a simple response.

"I'm gonna go fix this." He said, and with that he walked the rest of the way down the hall and into the dining room leaving Jenna to remain where she had been for the past fifteen minutes or so.

Steele sat on Rosy's left side as she ate while her parents sat at both ends of the table; her mother drinking a small cup of tea and examining her fingernails, and her father reading the small print of a mechanic bill for his newly bought Model T. Steele could smell the hybrid coming closer so it was not a surprise when he slinked into the room and stopped, awkwardly looked around, and then once again began moving further towards its occupants. Steele stared daggers at the halfbreed the entire time hoping to make him uncomfortable enough to just walk past them all and back out through the kitchen.

To Steele's surprise however, Balto did not simply cower and walk past everyone but instead smirked ever so slightly and then parked himself right beside Steele, looked up at him, and then to Rosy who graciously petted the brown dog as well. While Balto received his share of the small girl's affection, Steele turned his head fully to the hybrid and stared angrily at him. Once Rosy was done petting them and turned her attention over to her mother to curiously ask about wanting to paint her own nails, Steele spoke.

"What do you want? Come for a show?" Steele grumbled.

Balto turned his own head to look at the husky beside him and smiled, then proceeded to turn his attention towards Rosy once again.

Steele, now angry he had been ignored, shoved Balto's shoulder with his paw. "I asked you a question, mutt don't ignore me." he spat.

Balto, without looking towards the husky responded. "I've got nothing to say to you."

Before Steele could retort, Rosy pushed out her chair and took her mother's hand who was saying something about the two of them going to her room so she could show her how to do her nail polish and her father getting up to go into the living room to call the mechanic as he had questions about the car; leaving the two dogs alone in the dining room rather quickly.

Once the family was out of sight, Steele growled and smacked Balto across the face with his left paw careful not to let his claws get him so as to not leave evidence of an attack for the family to find.

Balto, not expecting the sudden smack stumbled on his forelegs for a moment before restablezing and looking up towards the angered husky who towered over him; his light blue gaze piercing the hybrid. Before Balto could do or say a word Steele's low but powerful voice struck him and caused a small shudder; Balto still was not completely unafraid of the husky.

"You've done a lot of stupid shit Balto but that little smugness on your face has gotta be up there with some of the stupidest." Steele hissed. "You don't speak to me like that, you don't ignore me like that, you do as I say Bingo or you get hurt do you understand? We've been over this plenty of times you and I but you still seem to think you can somehow get away with it; you still sometimes get this little boost of courage out of nowhere and think that you can pull a little stunt like that and I won't do anything about it."

Balto's golden eyes stared back at the tall husky; watching his tail flick in anger in his periphery. He said nothing.

"Well? Got nothing? Still scared of big ol' Steele huh? Good, because I've had it with you, now you're gonna pay. Now I'm not holding back like I usually do because clearly you can't be trusted to stay where you belong." Steele stated smuggly with a grin across his maw.

Balto remained silent and backed up a little not knowing what Steele would think to do. He thought of running upstairs or into the kitchen to get away from the angered dog but before he could collect himself and move away, Steele suddenly growled, through himself to ground, and howled in pain. Balto's eyes widened and he started to scamper away into the hall but was met with Rosy's father standing up from the couch and walking towards the dining room with the phone he was using placed on the coffee table off the receiver as to keep the call from ending.

"What's going on in here? Balto, did you hurt Steele?" the man asked sternly as he noted Balto's feared expression and the black and white husky regaining his composure.

Rosy's father nealt down to Steele and ensured he was alright, then looked back towards the terrified half breed. "Aw Balto I know you're just trying to play but Steele's hurt right now you gotta be careful with him, alright? Come on you can come sit with me while I sort out this car stuff let Steele sniff around some more, we'll play outside once I'm done."

Balto relaxed tenfold as he knew Steele was trying to stage a fight but luckily due to Rosy's father being overly apologetic and grateful towards Balto for being so good with his daughter all the time and helping the team he was spared the usual harsh treatment he was so used to receiving from everyone in town. Balto allowed himself to be ushered into the other room with the man and sat beside him on the couch as he continued his chat.

Back in the dining room, Steele snorted; annoyed that his plan did not work. He had not considered how loyal Rosy's family had become towards the hybrid and now knew it was going to take a lot more than on the spot plans. As he sat on his haunches for a moment considering what he could do next to further his agenda, Jenna peered into the room through the kitchen which Steele duly noted and swaggered up to her.

"Hey Jenna, Feeling any better?" Steele said with a toothy smile.

"What was all that that just happened? I heard what John said what did you do?" Jenna retorted angrily.

Steele chuckled and smiled back at her again. "Oh it was nothing Jenna, just an accident. I tripped trying to walk away and I fell wrong on my side and I guess he thought Balto was trying to rough house a little but no worries Jenna nothing happened."

"Bullshit Steele I know you too well and you of all dogs don't just 'trip' over your own feet." Jenna shot back with a scowl on her muzzle.

Steele then lowered his ears and looked off to the side with a sigh. "You know Jenna I'm really sorry for upsetting you and I really wish you would stop doing this to me… I'm just trying to coexist here I can't change what's happened. I can't just leave you know, your family paid for my medical bills after all."

"Why don't you just go find a goddamn sled recruiter and go get the lead position of another team for christ's sake Steele why do you have to bother _me_ of all dogs!?" Jenna yelled; frustrated.

Steele then stood up and walked past her into the kitchen with his head down. "I can't run anymore with these injuries… they did some nasty internal damage and I have a punctured lung now. I can't be lead dog anymore of any team, so forgive me for just trying to be a good house pet." he said sadly.

Jenna turned to him. "All you do is lie and make life hell for Balto and I just please get the fuck out." she said through clenched teeth.

Steele then turned back towards the red husky, sadness filling his eyes making them seem to appear a darker blue than they usually were. "I haven't done _shit_ to you or Balto since getting here Jenna." he stated upsettingly.

Jenna was about to retort but she realized… she couldn't. Jenna hadn't witnessed anything Steele had done so far and he had been particularly careful not to do anything around any of Jenna's family. Since everything he had done so far was just generally normal Steele shenanigans of verbally abusing Balto and shoving him down, not to mention faking a fight but of course Jenna couldn't say without a doubt it was true or not, Balto hadn't felt the need to share what had transpired as he felt Jenna would be expecting as much nor did he feel that Steele would be able to break through to Jenna and convince her otherwise. Of course all Jenna knew was that Steele was acting extremely different now and she knew that the old Steele wouldn't hesitate to antagonize Balto in front of her. Though she still felt he was up to something, for now Jenna would have to play nice because for all she knew, he really could be telling the truth and she felt it would be better to play it safe and be skeptical rather than call something out and be proven wrong later; things were playing out very strangely right now and she felt the need to be careful, why she did not know, but a voice in her head told her not jump to conclusions right this second. Jenna was suddenly taken out of her train of thought she had been lost in for a few moments by Steele sighing in front of her, clearly he was upset and frustrated but not angry, just… defeated by the look of things. He then spoke again.

"I've done some bad shit Jen' I know that. Right now I'm just trying to make the best out of all this. If you wanna go fact check me go look at the vet records John left on the counter over there, they'll tell you what's wrong with me. I just wanna start over right now, maybe it was for the best that I got hurt. Maybe I needed to be slowed down and taken out of the hot seat. Right now though I need you and Balto's support here. I'm hurt, I'm sad, and I'm alone now. Just please let me do good here." Steele said as a few tears and small chokes of sobs made there way out of him.

"I.. I.." Jenna tried to say something but she just put her own head down and sighed.

Suddenly, a piece of paper was slid over to her with some various numbers and treatment information along with some notes towards the bottom; this was Steele's vet record. Upon close inspection, Jenna noted the various issues Steele now had to deal with including a punctured right lung that no longer pumped oxygen into his body, and a completely unrelated issue that was found after the vet performed a routine check up on Steele after running all those miles. He had developed a bad case of nearsightedness that wouldn't allow him to see more than one or two feet in front of him very well; the cause of which the vet noted was due to the amount of ice and debris that had been blown into his face throughout his journey across the Alaskan tundra. Jenna sighed and shut her eyes, he wasn't lying, Steele's running days were over.

"Please don't tell anyone Jen', I'd rather not have this spread all over." Steele requested in a hushed voice.

Jenna looked up to meet Steele's gaze, his eyes moist with a few tears. "I'm sorry."

With that Jenna turned and scurried away upstares; leaving the saddened husky alone in the kitchen She needed a little time.


	10. Chapter 10

Balto sighed. He was so frustrated with how things were turning out right now. He'd done amazing things for this town and was finally being accepted by the animals and humans that inhabited it, but still he faced the same old problem. Steele just couldn't leave him alone no matter what it seemed. Balto had felt so close; so sure as he stood on the stoop of that hospital just the other night that things were finally going to change, but all that hope and optimism was shattered the moment Steele sauntered up to the group of canines falsely congratulating the wolf dog.

Steele's presence had an affect on Balto that he just couldn't quite understand. He was so afraid of the sled dog but would sometimes feel like he could actually stand up to him; in fact he did just that a few times but as soon as that tuxedo colored husky settled his blue gaze on the hybrid he would immediately slink back and have second guesses about wanting to fight or antagonize him. The actions Balto took in the woods after finding the lost team were something he still couldn't believe he had done, at this point chalking them up to the cold messing with his head and giving him an extra boost of confidence akin to the feeling of invulnerability humans felt after having a few too many drinks.

Balto had depression, he knew that much. Balto also knew that he was quite anxious and apprehensive but he mostly chalked that up to his heightened alertness in order to stay alive. What Balto had not been considering was just how much of an effect these mental illnesses could have on himself. The early part of the twentieth century was not a good time for mental illness awareness and though Balto held no animosity or prejudices against anyone with such ailments, in fact no dogs really did since their senses and brains don't operate the same as a human's, it didn't change the fact that there simply wasn't that much in the way of research and true understanding of what the long term effects of these diseases could be. Therefore, Balto was left knowing he had such ailments, but had no idea how to properly treat them or what they could do to him. As far as the wolf dog was concerned, he'd become less anxious as he adjusted to his new town life, and his depression would clear up simply by being surrounded by happy things, success, and love. While yes these things help, they're certainly not the cure but Balto had no way of knowing that.

Balto stretched and yawned as he heard Jenna quickly run upstairs; catching only a quick glimpse of her red coat ascend the staircase. Curious of course, and knowing his worst enemy sat in the room across the hall, Balto jumped down from the sofa and poked his head into the dining room only to find it empty. Balto then further walked in and watched as Steele grabbed a piece of paper in his mouth up off the floor and rear up on his hind legs for a moment to slide it onto the counter in the kitchen.

Steele hadn't noticed the wolf dog's presence just a few feet away in the adjacent room but was ultimately alerted to the other canine after he spoke up.

"Listen Steele." Balto said confidently with his chest held high. Once again he felt that rush of confidence flow through him but it was, as usual, brought to a stand still as the large husky turned his piercing blue eyes to the hybrid; wearing an expression that seemed to tell him 'you better speak carefully'.

"...". Nothing. Balto had nothing. He felt his throat run dry and he tried to swallow any saliva he might have left in his mouth to moisten his trachea but alas there was nothing to swallow. The wolf dog's tongue dried up as well and he felt a nervous shiver run through him as he remembered Steele's words with him on the boat.

' _...you just wanted to save the children! You wanted to do something good, something I was already in the process of doing. Guess what Balto, I wanted to do something good too, I wanted to bring that medicine here and help save those kids too but you know what I really wanted to do most of all?'_

' _What Steele?'_

' _ **I wanted to come home and rip out your fucking throat!'**_

Balto shuddered at the thought. Suddenly the large dog in front of him walked towards him and sat in front of him. Steele still towered over Balto even when he sat down, this wasn't helping his confidence at all and all Balto wanted to do at that moment was run out of that house and go back to his boat.

Steele cocked his head to the side slightly and stared down disapprovingly at the brown hybrid. "I'm listening." he grumbled.

Balto stared solely into the husky's eyes not daring to look away as to not show anymore signs of weakness. Steele couldn't bully him forever and for the first time in his life Balto was beginning to come out on top.

"Why… what did you…do to her?" Balto stammered out.

Steele smiled and grunted. He knew he hadn't lost his grip of fear over the wolf dog. "Oh Balto I didn't do anything to her. We had a heartfelt conversation; the details of which are none of your concern." He stated smugly.

Balto glanced around to his left and right as he searched for a response, but Steele raised his paw and patted Balto on his shoulder before standing again and walking past him. Balto turned to face the husky as he strode confidently away.

"Balto, you worry too much. Jenna is very safe here especially with me around. You should know I wouldn't let anything hurt her or her beloved humans." Steele spoke as he turned his head back to face the hybrid with the biggest shit eating grin he could muster.

Once again Balto felt that tinge of confidence return. "Steele you're a sick dog. I pity you and whatever you went through that turned you into this."

Steele's grin faded and he slowly turned fully around to face the wolf dog. He raised is head high, sat on his haunches, and slowly and rhythmically swayed his fluffy tail back and forth across the hardwood floor. Balto simply remained standing and kept his eyes glued to the dog.

"You pity me? You think you know _anything_ about me that would give you the _right_ to pity me?" Steele spoke; his voice poised and seemingly daring to egg on the wolf dog to say anything else.

Balto felt it again. The confidence seeming to remain this time and his internal excitement rise as he seemingly was about to get the husky to open up even if it was out of pure anger and hatred. _'He could easily rip me to shreds. He's angry as ever but i've gotta know more.'_

"So why don't you tell me then." Balto retorted; his voice steady and intentious.

"Balsy." Steele responded with a chuckle and a grin. Something about the confident side of the hybrid seeming to entice him.

Balto's features remained stoic and his stare remained unwavering. "Make me understand, Steele."

Steele's smirk remained as he stood up once again and began to walk towards the entrance to the hall. "Not a chance." He stated as he made his way into the living room.

Before Balto could have a second thought about it he began following the former champion into the other room. He wasn't about to let this go; not this time. Balto had been through too much in his life because of that dog to let the topic go.

"Why not, Steele? What are you trying to keep from me? _What_ did I do!?" Balto huffed out in frustration.

"We're done talking, Bingo." Steele stated bluntly without turning to look at the wolf dog.

Balto, out of pure frustration, then walked up beside the husky as he was about to sit on a dog bed near the fireplace on the far wall and knocked his shoulder into him causing the sled dog to be caught off guard and fall on his injured body; letting out a yelp as he collided with the floor.

Steele quickly regained his composure and stood back up to his full height. He stared down at Balto with primal fury burning in his eyes; a look that Balto had become rather familiar with over the years though never because Balto hit him.

Balto held his ground. His entire being telling him to stop but it was too late to walk away now. For the first time in Balto's life he had directly attacked Steele. Balto had been in many scuffles with the pure bred but he had never gone on the offensive towards him and it was evident in both of their gazes that they were both equally shocked at what the hybrid had just done.

Balto took in a deep breath through his nose and puffed out his chest. "You can either talk to me directly or I can gather all the information I want to know from everyone else in town, Steele. I would much rather hear it from you first though." He stated confidently.

Steele said nothing. Instead he quickly swiped Balto across the face with his right paw; hard enough to knock the hybrid over.

Balto hit the ground with a grunt, but he was sick of letting Steele win now. Steele always won and this time he wasn't going to let the husky scare him. Balto's fear for Steele was slowly wearing away and he was beginning to see the fragile being that hid behind the bravado of the sled dog's exterior.

Balto stood up again and returned to staring directly into the husky's face. "Fine." he spoke through gritted teeth before quickly turning and walking out of the living room and up the stairs.

Steele grunted and began settling down on the dog bed he had intended to rest on before.

Up in Rosy's room, Jenna sat curled up on the bed. She was feeling so emotionally drained with everything she was feeling right now. Jenna was a dog who was taught to see the good in others no matter their actions. Her parents were an incredibly open minded couple because they had been purchased by a secretly gay couple down in Anchorage. Jenna's mother would tell her puppies stories of how humans stigmatized one another for no good reason other than being afraid of what they didn't know. Jenna's father taught her that love comes in all shapes and sizes and that it didn't matter if the partner she brought home was a girl or a boy, if they were fat, skinny, or strong, if they were of purebred pedigree or not, and even if they were a dog or not. All that mattered to Jenna's parents was that their daughter was loved, protected, and happy.

When the day came that Jenna was brought to Nome about a year and half into her life, she met a sweet St. Bernard around her own age by the name of Rusty. Rusty was a rather portly dog with a big heart and charismatic personality. The two dogs had a few dates and genuinely enjoyed each other's company. Unfortunately the day came when Rusty's owner, a rather old woman, became ill and could no longer care for her dog anymore and he was sent away to live in Colorado with her sons. Though devastated, Jenna was able to keep her head high and knew that it was rare a first love would last indefinitely. With Rusty out of her life, Jenna would find herself single again for another three months before a certain black and white siberian husky would make his stamp on her life.

Steele arrived in Nome around 1922 and at this point he was beginning to be known around Alaska especially by other sled dogs. Nome being a town of mostly sled dogs at the time, lead to Steele's arrival and as a permanent resident being the talk of the town. The female dogs swooned over the champion and males became desperate to befriend him with a few secretly swooning along with the girls.

Jenna was a different dog back then. Thought she never forgot the teachings her parents gave her about love and relationships, it certainly didn't stop her from being more than a little curious about the attractive new dog in town or from being a bit flustered the first time she spoke to him.

Jenna's first encounter with Steele came in the form of her and her friends walking past the beach where they spotted the husky and various other sled dogs running laps and training. Jenna immediately took notice to Steele as he was the biggest and most athletically able of the dogs running around on the sand and she couldn't lie; he was a handsome sight. Steele had noticed the group of girls rather quickly and shot them all a smile before walking towards them. The other dogs all started to smile and become all jittery wanting to be the one Steele spoke to first but to no avail; for it was Jenna, the quiet and politely smiling red husky that caught the eye of the sled dog first.

Steele politely introduced himself to everyone; offering a smile to each of them but it was Jenna who received the first direct form of conversation. Steele introduced himself last to Jenna and and immediately asked her for her name. Of course Jenna obliged and it didn't take long for Steele to ask her to stick around and hang out with him which she accepted gracefully. It was from that moment on that Jenna's life would be changed completely.

Jenna at the time would have no idea how much pain and suffering Steele would cause her and her friends in only a short time from there. The first couple of dates went by without trouble but Steele began showing his more pushy and arrogant side as time went on, only pushing Jenna away more and more with each time they interacted. It didn't take long for Jenna to declare to Steele that she was not interested in pursuing their relationship further than cordial friendship, and that was when the Steele she knew him as now began to truly take shape.

 **AN:**

 **Hey everyone! I've decided to rewrite this chapter's ending because I really dislike the way I ended it before; it was rushed and not very good work and I apologize for that. Please let me know how this one turned out! Thank you for reading so far!**


	11. Chapter 11

Once reaching the top of the stairs, Balto's demeanor relaxed a bit as he made his way down the upstairs hall. He huffed out a sigh to ensure he got out all his frustration and annoyance at the sled dog downstairs before facing his girlfriend who was probably not in the mood to continue discussions on Steele's presence. Once Balto was sure he relieved himself of his negative thoughts, he poked his head into Rosy's bedroom where he noticed Jenna curled up on the bed facing away from the door.

"Jenna?" The hybrid asked gently as he walked further into the room and to the base of the bed.

Jenna's ears lifted along with her head a moment later; turning to face her boyfriend. "Hi Balto." She whispered.

Balto smiled and leapt up onto the bed with the red husky and lowered himself onto his belly with his head resting on her shoulder. "C'mon Jen let's get outta here for the day. We can go take a walk or something, no use staying inside where he can bother us."

Jenna nuzzled into Balto. "Do you wanna talk about it? About him?" she asked curiously.

"Jen' I'm tired of him. We've spent years dealing with him and I'm done. I wanna enjoy some time with you for once especially now that we've got the freedom to actually move around town without being chased away. Of course I have plenty of questions about Steele now that I can actually ask other dogs about him but I don't wanna focus on that with you anymore. He's a constant source of stress for you and I'm not spending the majority of our relationship focusing on him." Balto said as he moved to nuzzle the husky's cheek.

Jenna smiled and nuzzled back. Balto was always able to improve her mood no matter how she was feeling and she couldn't thank him enough for that. Balto was right, she's been dealing with Steele for too long now and it was about time the two of them just had some time with one another where he wasn't part of the conversation or able to barge in on them. She knew Balto had many questions about Steele and she'd be more than happy to answer whatever she could but like he said, they need to focus on them right now not some pompous ex sled dog.

"Thank you Balto. I'd like very much to just have a day for you and I right now." Jenna said with a smile. She then stood up slowly, jumped down onto the floor, and looked back up towards the hybrid who was beginning to follow suit. "When you're ready to hear about him, let me know."

"Will do." Balto said as he joined his partner on the floor.

The two canines then began to make their way out of the bedroom and downstairs. Both of them remained silent as they lightly padded down the creaky steps; apprehensive that Steele would be there waiting for them. As the two made it the bottom, they held their breath as they walked past the entry into the living room where they saw the large tuxedo colored husky lying down on the dog bed Balto had last seen him on. The pair took small sighs of relief as they noticed his gentle snoring and were able to safely confirm that he was asleep. Once the two made it through the doggie door in the hallway onto the back porch they both chuckled.

"He knocks out fast, geez." Balto said with a giggle.

Jenna let out a quiet 'shh' though she was clearly holding back her own giggling. After a second however she was able to control her voice enough to speak without laughing. "Don't jinx us and wake him up." she said playfully.

Balto responded with a quick chuckle and the pair then walked out the second doggie door that lead into the backyard. Once outside, the pair made their way around the side of the house and began their leisurely walk down the block.

Back inside Jenna's home, Steele rolled over onto his back still snoring and fast asleep. It never took much to put the sled dog to sleep with him only requiring something soft to lay on, after which he would simply doze off almost instantly when he wanted to. The ex sled dog's chest rose and fell rhythmically and even though the husky was in a pretty deep sleep, he was suddenly awoken by the sound of hurried footsteps running down the stairs along with a small girl's excited laughter.

Rosy happily bounded into the living room and sat down on the couch with one of her dolls. Steele, now fully awake again, settled his blue gaze on the little girl across the room as she sat and carefully brushed the doll's blonde hair.

"Now our nails match Lizzy! Look! Mommy helped me paint mine a pretty red just like yours!" Rosy exclaimed.

Steele smiled slightly at Rosy's seemingly endless happiness. He had to admit, she was a cute kid. _"I supposed having her as a human isn't so bad. She's not a little monster like some of the other brats in this town."_ The husky thought.

As Steele sat and watched her brade the doll's hair, Rosy looked up in his direction. "Steele! C'mere boy!" She asked happily.

Steele then slowly rose from his resting spot and walked over to the girl who patted the spot next to her. Steele complied and carefully hopped up with her being cautious that his nails wouldn't scratch the couch, that he wouldn't accidentally hit her with his tail, or upset his still sore body.

Steele, because he was sleeping, hadn't noticed that Jenna and Balto left and assumed they were upstairs. Since Steele was trying to keep up appearances among Jenna's family and Jenna, he decided that for his plan to work he would have to take no risks and would have to play the part of the lovable family pet whether or not the other two were around to see it.

" _Appearances are everything right now Steele. Just be a big goofy puppy for now and try to enjoy it, it'll pay off soon enough."_ The ex sled dog thought.

Rosy reached over and happily hugged the big husky around his neck. She leaned on his body a bit to give the hug which did cause Steele some discomfort he didn't want to show it and possibly make her uncomfortable about being around him. So, Steele simply nuzzled his head into hers slightly and bit his tongue to keep from letting out a small whimper. He really didn't mind dealing with this kind of treatment from the small girl because he knew she didn't mean it and genuinely thought of him as her hero.

Then suddenly; Rosy abruptly pulled away and presented her doll to the large dog. "Steele this is Lizzy! Balto and Jenna already know about her so it's only fair I tell you too! She's my favorite baby doll and she loves riding on the new sled mommy and daddy got me! She knows all about you and she's gonna want a ride from you on the sled cuz you're the fastest dog ever!" She said happily, holding the doll in front of the husky's face so he could see her.

Steele reached out his head a little in order to sniff at the young girl's toy. The doll was very well kept and resembled a young girl around seven or eight years old. She had long blonde hair and a little baby blue dress and matching hat on with little black shoes. Steele had seen many little girls carry their dolls around with them but this one was clearly something special as it was extremely clean and seemed a bit older and more expensive looking than most other dolls he saw young girls with.

" _Alright Steele now you know how much she loves her little doll here. Maybe finding it somewhere safe and sound after it's been lost would be a good idea?"_ Steele thought. Steele then let out a low 'awoo' type sound for the small girl to hear along with a gentle nuzzle of the toy to show his appreciation for her doll.

Rosy giggled and placed the doll in her lap sitting up as she petted Steele's head. "I'm glad you like her, boy!"

The young girl then took the doll in her right arm; holding it against her body and stood up from the couch. Steele sat up and looked to the girl expecting instructions.

"C'mon with me upstairs boy!" Rosy said as she walked over to the staircase.

Steele hopped down from the couch carefully and trotted behind the girl as she lead him upstairs and into her bedroom where he was shocked to see that Balto and Jenna were not. _"I would've expected them to be in here. I guess they're in another room? It smells like wolf dog in here though… Whatever, I'll worry about that later."_ he thought to himself as he sat on his haunches in the center of the room and watched the excited little girl go into her closet.

Rosy sifted through the closet for a few moments before stepping out with a questioning expression. "Alright don't tell daddy what I'm about to do. Stay here boy." she stated as she exited the room.

Steele watched her exit the room and disappear down the hall. With the opportunity presented to him, Steele began sniffing around the young girl's room, examining the various dolls and other toys she had scattered around. Like her doll Lizzy, Rosy's other toys were all in very nice condition and were all placed in their individual locations very purposefully and carefully; definitely not something the other little girls in town seemed to do as he had seen a number of child's bedrooms on the nights he would decide to sleep with another dog in their house while their owner was out of town.

" _Damn. She's got respect for the most basic shit."_ Steele thought.

Suddenly Rosy ran back into the room and shut the door behind her quickly; startling Steele for a moment. Steele then took notice of Rosy holding a dark green wool blazer and scarf; waiting for what he knew was coming next.

"Ok don't tell mommy and daddy but I needed to get you something to wear! All I have are girly clothes so I had to borrow daddy's jacket for you." Rosy stated as she walked over to the large dog.

Steele sat motionless on his haunches looking at the girl and jacket. _"Well at least she isn't putting makeup in my fur."_ he thought.

Rosy then knelt down and took Steele's front paws one at a time and placed the blazer on the dog, and then wrapped the scarf around his bare neck. It felt weird having something on his neck again since his collar had been ripped off of him by his old musher. Once she was done, Steele then glanced into a mirror the girl had on the back of her bedroom door and took in the humiliating sight.

The jacket, surprisingly, didn't sit all that bad on the husky. Since Steele was a big dog, roughly 145 pounds, the jacket didn't swallow him up and only looked awkward because he was a dog wearing a human blazer. Steele was however able to at least observe himself in general to ensure he looked presentable for Jenna.

" _Well Steele this certainly isn't how you thought today was gonna go but at least you still look good."_ Steele thought to himself.

Rosy then interrupted the husky's show of himself and beckoned him over to a small table she had set up with her toy tea set. "Ok Steele now I gotta teach you how to be a gentleman! Girls like it when you can take them on a really nice date!" Rosy said happily as she sat across from the sled dog.

Steele sat on his haunches, looking down and sniffing at the various things Rosy had placed in front of him. She had given him a tea cup, various saucers, a few pieces of cutlery, and a napkin all neatly arranged on the small table. _"Right. Tea party. I've definitely never done this before but it can't be that unbearable, right?"_ He thought.

Rosy then reached for a teapot that was placed in the center of the table and proceeded to pretend pour drinks into hers and the sled dog's cups. "Remember Steele, girls like when guys look really nice when they go out cuz it makes a really good impression." Rosy said as she finished pretending to pour the drinks and place the teapot back in the center of the table.

" _Oh trust me kid, it doesn't take much to impress with this pretty face and body."_ Steele thought arrogantly.

Rosy then picked up her own cup and pretended to take a sip. "We gotta get you a new collar boy. I'm glad that old one is gone though..."

" _Huh?"_

"...I think it kinda made you look fat."

" _Fuck you."_

Rosy giggled as she finished her statement with Steele internally seething with rage across from here being careful not to look angry in fear of frightening the small girl, though after that comment he wasn't so sure he cared anymore.

About twenty minutes passed with Rosy giving Steele lessons on how to properly court ladies and Steele internally fuming every time she gave him a criticism. By the time it was over it had felt like an eternity had gone by for the ex sled dog and he was beginning to disregard his past thoughts about how cute Rosy seemed to be.

" _And this is why I merely tolerate human kids. At least puppies don't look at me as cute like human kids do so they end up just steering clear of the big scary dog leading the team."_ Steele thought causing him to smile slightly at the thought of other dogs fearing his very presence.

Across the room, Rosy finished putting away her tea set neatly back into a box and walked over to the large husky who after seeing that the tea party wrapping up moved to the center of the room and plopped down on his belly waiting for the jacket to be taken off of him. Rosy reached down and carefully but a bit clumsily removed the jacket and scarf from the dog's body and quickly ran them back to her parents bedroom, telling Steele he was a good boy on her way out.

Now free from the human clothes, Steele stood up and walked out of the room and started sniffing around. _"Where are those two? I would've expected Rosy to force them in on this too."_ he thought as he entered the spare bedroom.

Steele looked around the spare room and then proceeded to check the other various rooms for any signs of the other two dogs while Rosy found herself occupied by another one of her doll's dresses; trying to smooth out the wrinkles in it. Once Steele had searched all the upstairs rooms, he was able to determine that neither dog was on the second floor so he decided to follow their scent back downstairs.

" _I'm already getting sick of this game I'm bored! Honestly as annoying as that wolfdog is I'd even accept his company here right now just so I could annoy him."_ Steele thought as he followed the couple's scent onto the back patio and to the doggie door that lead outside.

" _Shit. They must've left to get away from me for the day. How the hell am I supposed to carry out my plans if those two just run off?"_ Steele thought angrily as the severity of his situation began to sink in.

Steele sighed and walked over to the dog bed Jenna had on the porch and parked himself on it. _"I guess the only thing to do around here then is sleep and get fat by the look of things."_ he thought as he lowered himself on his belly and rested his head on his front paws.

A few hours passed and Steele slept through all of them. Thought he was a champion racer, Steele loved sleeping in and if he didn't have training or a run to do he would gladly sleep in in the mornings and go out later at night to cruise around town with the other dogs. As the husky rolled over he was suddenly taken out of his deep sleep as a familiar scent hit his nostrils. The husky's eyes shot open and his ears tilted forward as he gaze settled on the figure in front of him.

"We need to talk Steele." Balto said as he stood over the ex sled dog.


End file.
